The School Book of Forestry eBook

Altogether 420,000,000 feet of lumber have been cut
and sold from the national forests of Alaska in the
past ten years. This material has been made into
such products as piling, saw logs and shingle bolts.
All this lumber has been used in Alaska and none of
it has been exported. Much of the timber was cut
so that it would fall almost into tide-water.
Then the logs were fastened together in rafts and
towed to the sawmills. One typical raft of logs
contained more than 1,500,000 feet of lumber.
It is not unusual for spruce trees in Alaska to attain
a diameter of from six to nine feet and to contain
10,000 or 15,000 feet of lumber.

Southeastern Alaska has many deep-water harbors which
are open the year round. Practically all the
timber in that section is controlled by the Government
and is within the Tongass National Forest. This
means that this important crop will be handled properly.
No waste of material will occur. Cutting will
be permitted only where the good of the forest justifies
such work.

CHAPTER XI

PROGRESS IN STATE FORESTRY

The rapid depletion and threatened exhaustion of the
timber supply in the more thickly populated sections
of the East has prompted several of the states to
initiate action looking toward the conservation of
their timber resources. As far back as 1880,
a forestry commission was appointed in New Hampshire
to formulate a forest policy for the State. Vermont
took similar action two years later, followed within
the next few years by many of the northeastern and
lake states.

These commissions were mainly boards of inquiry, for
the purpose of gathering reliable information upon
which to report, with recommendations, for the adoption
of a state forest policy. As a result of the
inquiries, forestry departments were established in
a number of states. The report of the New York
Commission of 1884 resulted in forest legislation,
in 1885, creating a forestry department and providing
for the acquisition of state forests. Liberal
appropriations were made from time to time for this
purpose, until now the state forests embrace nearly
2,000,000 acres, the largest of any single state.

New York state forests were created, especially, for
the protection of the Adirondack and Catskill regions
as great camping and hunting grounds, and not for
timber production. The people of the state were
so fearful that through political manipulation this
vast forest resource might fall into the hands of
the timber exploiters, that a constitutional amendment
was proposed and adopted, absolutely prohibiting the
cutting of green timber from the state lands.
Thus, while New York owns large areas of state forest
land, it is unproductive so far as furnishing timber
supplies to the state is concerned. It is held
distinctly for the recreation it affords to campers
and hunters, and contains many famous summer resorts.